
Two Sounds That Make Me Happy
Strange auditory pleasure
Most of my favorite sounds come from nature; waterfalls, honking geese, a kitty cat meowing, rustling leaves, the sound of a babbling brook, crickets, the buzz of cicadas, the sound of the surf slapping a beach, and of course any and all birdsong.
But there are two sounds made by humankind that make me happy. One is the sound of lawnmowers and the other is the sound of small airplanes.
When I say that I like the sound of lawnmowers I should be more specific. What I like is the sound of DISTANT lawnmowers. A lawnmower mowing in close proximity is just too loud. The sound of someone mowing their yard a couple of blocks away is very soothing to me, however. For some strange reason the droning sound of a distant lawn mower makes me fell all dreamy. It is a sound of summer and I love summer.
The sound of a lawnmower in winter is just plain incongruous. When I hear a distant lawnmower memories of so many summers are triggered and I am immediately put in a ‘summer mood.’ For me, a summer mood is one of pure happiness.
The other sound made by humankind that makes me happy I can listen to all year long. Ever since I was a kid the sound of a small airplane flying by induces in me a dreamy, hypnotic mood. I am not sure why. The sounds of big jets or helicopters I find annoying however.
I once lived near a big airport with big jets taking off every four and a half minutes. That totally sucked. Luckily, there are no big airports anywhere near where I live now. There is a small airstrip on the other side of town, however, so an occasional small airplane will fly by and I actually like this.
Lawnmowers and planes might be polluting products of humankind’s technological bent but the sounds they make put a smile on my face.
Winter finally ended last week here on the Great Plains of Turtle Island and we went directly into summer, bypassing spring altogether. If I were blind and could not see the greening of nature I would still know that it is now summer because I have started hearing distant lawnmowers.
And this makes me very happy.
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